When Donna Jennings started making body scrub in her parents’ kitchen six years ago, she had no idea that she was creating a product that would be sold throughout the country.
The single mum started out selling three handmade beauty products at the Berrima Markets and is now selling 150 products in three locations across NSW (with another 50 product ideas in mind).
Bare Body Beauty is a company founded on principles of all-natural ingredients and sustainability. Ms Jennings says that 80 per cent of the beauty products made in Bowral are edible, although probably not the tastiest.
“It’s a philosophy of why put on your body what you wouldn’t put in your mouth. All of the products are the most natural products you can get on the market,” she said.
The business has won the Wingecarribee Council Environmental Sustainability Award in 2017 and 2018 and was highly commended in 2019.
Bare Body Beauty is a family business, and both of Ms Jennings’s children have been heavily involved since its inception.
“My kids are very active in the business because they have to be,” she laughs.
Both her 6-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son are instrumental in the running of the company. Her son has been running the Berrima store since he was 11 years old, and he was awarded the Business Youth of the Year award in 2019 for his efforts.
“They’ve both got the best work ethic,” Ms Jennings says of her kids.
“I’m very lucky with all of my staff. They’re all family.”
Ms Jennings has just opened her third store in Byron Bay and is looking forward to having some time to reflect on the growth of the business.
“I want to be able to sit back, look at the business and think ‘this is great’. I just want it to be stable. For it to be the best that it can be.”